Lucian Maxim: “I live my life in the sound space. Here I can improvise, I can be free, I can live fully”

Lucian Maxim, musician, composer and percussionist in the National Radio Orchestra, is the guest of Daniela Zeca Buzura in a new edition of “Breakfast with a Champion” on Saturday, May 11, from 10:00 a.m., on TVR 2 and TVR Internaţional. It is broadcast on TVR Cultural on Sunday, May 12, from 10:00 a.m.

“I can take information that those from the past have left me and I can change the state of those who are in front of me. I try to offer them another way of thinking. I wish it was a better one”, confesses from the beginning, Lucian Maxim, one of the few percussionists from us with such relevant performances not only for classical music, but also for theater or other musical genres.

Educated from an early age for music (first piano, then percussion) in a family with artistic inclinations that directed him to music school, Lucian Maxim quickly realized that serious and constant study can lead to special results: “… I discovered things that made me feel very good… I liked to repeat myself… I searched, I practiced for hours and the things I did came out as if… different”, he remembers. At the Conservatory, he competed for the only place available and got in. A performance that fully rewarded the determination to repeat without a break up to 5-9 hours a day. In 1991, he entered the National Radio Orchestra through a competition, where he was involved in numerous projects. From concerts, to radio theater or poetry recitals.

Lucian Maxim is today a recognized personality on the concert stage or in the world of theater and contemporary dance. A reference show, which just had a sold-out performance on Palm Sunday at the Romanian Playwrights Theater, is ”Iona” by Marin Sorescu. Not only the text of the play, but the entire directorial concept, the stage movement and the soundtrack are truly revolutionary. It should be remembered that “Iona” is one of Marin Sorescu’s most profound plays, which together with “Paracliserul” and “Matca” make up the dramatic trilogy entitled “Thirst of the Salt Mountain”, published in volume in 1974 In the stage coordination of Victor Ioan Frunză, with the music composed by Lucian Maxim and Adrian Nour and in the exceptional interpretation of Lari Giorgescu, this show represented an experiment in itself for our guest. Why? “The music for ‘Iona’ had to be thought of according to the way the actor approached the role. I had to give him some breathing room. That’s why I looked for inspiration in Romanian music. If we go to our authentic roots we find the greatest strength we can ever give back. The result was a music and theater show, that is, the complete version”.

His love for theater was built on the chance to meet several personalities – directors, actors, playwrights – who cultivated his native need for experiment. And so he ended up composing music for the stage. “I follow the rhythm of speech, body movement, overall stage movement. It’s all about rhythm. The way my music fulfills the characterization of a character is based on this kind of observation of rhythm, of subtle vibration. The word suggests the melody to me. That’s how I get to the right tone of the text I’m studying and from which I start. I really want to give my doctorate on this topic, “Rhythm in the theater”.

The meeting with Andrei Şerban in the 1990s and the collaboration on the “Ancient Trilogy” meant another horizon for Lucian Maxim. Moreover, this way of conceiving a theatrical performance was completely revolutionary for that moment. He was even invited to join the band of the Bucharest National Theater, but he declined diplomatically and with great wisdom because he realized that his world was still that of music and the experience with his colleagues from the National Radio Orchestra would bring him a contribution much more substantial in the job. But the collaboration remained and the results were commensurate with the investment of trust that Andrei Şerban and, later, other well-known collaborators such as Horatiu Mălăele, Gelu Colceag, Mihai Lungeanu, Dan Puric – to name just a few of them –, they had it in his creative capacity. And, indeed, they were not mistaken. “I discovered another world. I created starting from the musicality of the word, not from its meaning. Ancient Greek or Latin are languages ​​that are no longer spoken, but for the “Ancient Trilogy” performances, the direct meaning of the text was not important, but the musical meaning, the movement, the emotion.

From this initial experiment and after many decades of activity, Lucian Maxim continues to be classic and experimental in equal measure. He is a virtuoso percussionist but also a valuable composer. He collaborates with his creations on the soundtrack for performances at many theaters in Bucharest and in the country where he met first-hand directors, bands and actors. At the very moment when we are recording the show, he testified that there are five shows in the performance that can be watched currently. He likes jazz – he sang with Johnny Răducanu, Mircea Tiberian, Garbis Dedeian -, rock – he performed with the band “Sarmalele reci” -, but he also likes Brahms, Berlioz, Wagner, Ravel or Debussy.

We also have the opportunity to enjoy a few fragments from the show ”Iona” by Marin Sorescu * stage coordination: Victor Ioan Frunză * music: Lucian Maxim and Adrian Nour * performed by: Lari Giorgescu *** The show ”Iona” a was offered for the first time by the TVR Production House, being a takeover from the Romanian Dramaturgis Theater within the Theater in TVR 2020 project * Source: Romanian Dramaturgis Theater and from the “Sucuba” concert, the orchestrated version for wind players (brass instruments ) and percussion * composer: Lucian Maxim * “Mihail Jora” concert studio of Romanian Broadcasting.

Tours, concerts, poetry recitals or contemporary dance performances, there are just as many life stories, stories with songs skilfully told by Daniela Zeca Buzura, our host every Saturday morning, in a collection edition of the show “Breakfast with a Champion”.

*** The show can be watched on TVR 2, Saturday, May 11, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. (rerun on Monday, May 13, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.); at TVR Internaţional on May 11, 2024, at 10:00 a.m.; on TVR Moldova on Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 9:00 a.m.; on TVR Cultural, Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. and on TVR+.

An article by Ileana Ploscaru Panait